Explore our Cohorts

Asking Questions about Alcohol in Pregnancy Study

AQUA at 6 is a follow-up of the orginal AQUA cohort, including neurodevelopmental assessements and neuroimaging

• N:

  1570 mother/child dyads, 518 children participated in craniofacial imaging sub-study at 12 months of age and neurodevelopmental assessments at two years sub-study

• Recruitment:

  Women attending one of seven antenatal clinics in 2011-12 who are < 19 weeks pregnant with single baby

• Study type:

  Longitudinal pre-birth cohort study

• Study focus:

  The impacts of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and health and development of index child at birth, and at one, two and six/seven years of age.

Australian Temperament Project

The Australian Temperament Project is one of the longest running studies of social and emotional development in Australia.

• N:

  2443 families

   

• Recruitment:

  Victorian families with a 4-8 month old child attending a maternal and child health centre.

   

• Study type:

  Intergenerational longitudinal cohort study

   

• Study focus:

  Young people’s social and emotional development from infancy to adulthood

   

Australian Temperament Project: Generation 3 Cohort Study

The Australian Temperament Project is one of the longest running studies of social and emotional development in Australia.

• N:

  2443 families

   

• Recruitment:

  Victorian families with a 4-8 month old child attending a maternal and child health centre.

   

• Study type:

  Intergenerational longitudinal cohort study

   

• Study focus:

  Young people’s social and emotional development from infancy to adulthood

   

Barwon Infant Study

• N:

  Recruitment commenced June 2010 to June 2013. A total of 1158 mothers were enrolled, with 1074 eligible infants making up the inception birth cohort

• Recruitment:

  Antenatal recruitment of eligible women from the Barwon region of Victoria (≤ 28 weeks gestation)

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort

• Study focus:

  An investigation into the early life origins of a range of non-communicable diseases in the modern environment

Child to Adult Transition Study

• N:

  Commencement sample of 1239 students and their parents

• Recruitment:

  Children in metropolitan Melbourne aged 8-9 years of age (Grade 3)

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort with nested sub-study

• Study focus:

  The effect of puberty on health and emotional development.

Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC)’s Child Health CheckPoint

The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) Child Health CheckPoint is a one-off physical health and biospecimens module as part of the longitudinal cohort study

• N:

  1874 (plus 1874 parents)

• Recruitment:

  11-12 years old B cohort participants

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort

• Study focus:

  The linked LSAC-CheckPoint dataset allows researchers and policy makers to investigate how biology, environment and psychology, under the skin, during childhood and midlife via physiological adaptations that may lead to the major causes of death and morbidity

COVID Immune: Predictors of infection and clinical severity with SARS-CoV-2 in extant longitudinal LifeCourse population cohorts of children/young adults and their household/family contacts

• N:

  1172 participants recruited from four pre-existing cohorts

• Recruitment:

  Children and young adults aged 1 to 24 years recruited from each of 4 established cohorts (VITALITY, MIS BAIR, HealthNuts, SchoolNuts) with existing pre-pandemic immune biospecimens

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort

• Study focus:

  To investigate predictors of infection and clinical severity with SARS-CoV-2 in extant longitudinal LifeCourse population cohorts of children aged 1 to 24 years and their household

Early introduction of dietary allergen to reduce the population prevalence of infant food allergy

EarlyNuts is a population-based study of food allergy with an objective measurement of true food allergy, designed to assess the impact of food allergy prevention strategies.

• N:

  1933

• Recruitment:

  11-15 month old infants recruited from immunisation centres in Melbourne, Australia.

• Study type:

  Population-based, cross-sectional study.

• Study focus:

  This study evaluates the impact of earlier peanut introduction (and other allergenic solids) on the prevalence of peanut allergy (and other food allergies) at the population level

Early Language in Victoria Study

• N:

  1910

• Recruitment:

  Maternal and Child Health Nurses approached all parents of babies aged 8-10 months of age, within six Local Government Areas of Melbourne, Australia

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort

• Study focus:

  Speech and language development from infancy to adolescence. Sub-studies include investigations in to stuttering, autism, and bilingual language development

Generation Victoria

• N:

  Target: approximately 150,000 newborns and their parents

• Recruitment:

  All babies born in Victoria in a two-year period and their parents

• Study type:

  Longitudinal birth cohort of infants and their parents

• Study focus:

  GenV’s primary objective is to create large, parallel whole-of-state birth and parent cohorts for observational and interventional research, which will help solve complex problems facing children and adults and lead to better prediction, prevention, treatments and more equitable services

HealthNuts

• N:

  Whole cohort 5300; Clinic/food challenge 1026

   

• Recruitment:

  Infants around 12 months of age, were recruited from Melbourne metropolitan immunisation centres

   

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort study with clinical sub-study

   

• Study focus:

  Understanding the natural history of allergic disorders including food allergy, asthma, eczema and hay fever.

   

International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium

• N:

  381,860 mother and child pairs as of June 2016, including 671 cases of childhood cancer (198 leukaemia)

• Recruitment:

  An international collaboration of large population-based longitudinal birth cohorts with data and biospecimens relating to childhood cancer, and environmental exposures

• Study type:

  Consortium of prospective longitudinal birth cohorts

• Study focus:

  To examine associations between environmental exposures and the incidence of childhood cancers by pooling prospective population data from one million pregnant mothers and their babies

   

Infant2Child: Optimising nutrition in early life to reduce childhood dental caries

• N:

  Target sample size: 3000

• Recruitment:

  3000 Victorian children aged 18-24 months will be recuited from the Infant to Scale study

• Study type:

  Prospective observational study

• Study focus:

  Infant2Child seeks to evaluate the effect of a universal, early life intervention (INFANT) on dental caries prevalence and severity at 4 years and develop additional strategies to identify and prevent dental caries in high risk children

International Youth Development Study

IYDS is an international study, with participants in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States

• N:

  Total: 5769; AUS: 2884, USA: 2885

• Recruitment:

  3 year levels (5, 7, 9) of school children from Victoria and Washington State

• Study type:

  Longitudinal cohort

• Study focus:

  Risk and protective factors, as well as healthy and problem behaviours in young people and whether or not differences in Australian and American cultures and schools affect youth development

Memory Maestros

• N:

  1802 Whole cohort, 453 nested RCT sub-sample

• Recruitment:

  Grade 1 Melbourne (Australia) school children

• Study type:

  An observational cohort with a nested Randomised Controlled Trial

• Study focus:

  Examine the relationship between working memory development and educational outcomes

The Mothers’ and Young People’s Study

The Mothers’ and Young People’s Study (formerly known as Maternal Health Study) is a multi-wave, prospective cohort study investigating the health and well-being of over 1500 first-time mothers and their firstborn children

• N:

  1507 mothers

• Recruitment:

  First time mothers recruited in early pregnancy at six metropolitan public hospitals in Melbourne, Australia

• Study type:

  Longitudinal mother and child cohort study

• Study focus:

  Common maternal physical and psychological health problems, health consequences of family violence for women and children

The Peri/Post-natal Epigenetic Twins Study

• N:

  212 twin pairs and mothers

• Recruitment:

  Women attending a multiple pregnancy clinic at 3 Melbourne (Australia) hospitals who were 18-22 weeks gestation

• Study type:

  Longitudinal pre-birth cohort study

• Study focus:

  Investigating the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) paradigm in twins, looking at developmental plasticity through epigenetic changes

SchoolNuts

• N:

  9663 Whole cohort, 370 Clinical sub-study of participants with suspected food allergy

• Recruitment:

  Children aged 10-14 years and their parents recruited through schools

• Study type:

  Cross-sectional population-based cohort with a clinical assessment sub-study

• Study focus:

  Prevalence of challenge-proven food allergy and predictors of severe adverse reactions to food in early adolescence

The Triple B Pregnancy Cohort Study

The Triple B Pregnancy Cohort Study investigates the effects of parental substance use and mental health on parenting practices, familial functioning and child development.

• N:

  1623 families, 1534 mothers recruited through general antenatal clinics and 89 mothers recruited through specialist drug and alcohol antenatal clinics

  
  
• Recruitment:

  Women attending antenatal services attached to major hospitals, and specialist drug and alcohol antenatal services, in New South Wales and Western Australia (Australia).

  
  
• Study type:

  Longitudinal pre-birth cohort

  
  
• Study focus:

  Effects of substance use and mental health (alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs) during pregnancy by women and partners on child development and family functioning

  
  

2000 Stories: The Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study

2000 Stories is comprised of the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study (VAHCS) and the nested intergenerational study, Victorian Intergenerational Health Cohort Study (VIHCS)

• N:

  2032

• Recruitment:

  14-15 year old Victorian (Australia) school children

• Study type:

  Intergenerational longitudinal cohort study

• Study focus:

  An ongoing study of continuities, causes and sequelae of adolescent mental health problems and behavioural health risks

Victorian Intergenerational Health Cohort Study

2000 Stories is comprised of the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study (VAHCS) and the nested intergenerational study, Victorian Intergenerational Health Cohort Study (VIHCS)

• N:

  The commencement sample comprises all infants for whom one or more interviews were completed during the recruitment phase (Waves 1-3), totalling 1030 children born to 665 VAHCS parents.

   

• Recruitment:

  Offspring of the VAHCS participants

   

• Study type:

  Intergenerational longitudinal cohort study

   

• Study focus:

  Mental and physical health problems and risk behaviours in the adolescent to young adulthood transition, and whether pre-conception factors can predict child and parental outcomes into childhood in the next generation